This morning I was checking my Google News page which includes a Hollister News Section. A headline from the Morgan Hill Times (huh???) caught my attention – “Pinnacle National Park Highway: Gateway to a grocery store?” It reported that Jerry Muenzer has backed off his support for renaming the highway and now will propose that the Highway 25 renaming starts at 101 and stops at Safeway. (huh???)
Jerry has told me and the article reported that he has received an estimated dozen complaints from south county residents about renaming the highway, about the National Park itself and about increased traffic. I guess I can understand the traffic issue but when I drive down 25 once a month or so, what scares me the most are the racing motorcyclists who ride their rice rockets like its Laguna Seca.
But what about the greater good? San Benito County is struggling in so many areas can we seriously afford to repaint this rare golden egg black? I can’t quote any numbers but common sense (and having driven through Mariposa to Yosemite dozens of times) tells me there are some real economic opportunities here for us to capitalize on the tourism generated by our newest National Park. While our County Supervisors are desperately looking for every penny of new revenue, how can Jerry flip flop on this one now? After all, wasn’t he the one promoting this in Washington D.C.?
I wouldn’t support something that causes measurable harm to residents and I sincerely hope there are ways we can mitigate any real or significant impact on residents effected by a simple name change. But I would also like to remind my friend, he was democratically elected by a majority consisting of a lot more than 12 people. What do most of them think?